chimiquesvscliniquesTell them apart

Which to use

“chimiques” and “cliniques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,471
“chimiques” frequency rank
#8,080
“cliniques” frequency rank
12551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chimiques cliniques
Definition Pluriel de chimique. Pluriel de clinique.

Where the eye mixes chimiques and cliniques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. chimiques and cliniques follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
chimiques
9 ch
cliniques

Visual trap between chimiques and cliniques

A purely visual mix-up. chimiques (\ʃi.mik\) and cliniques (\kli.nik\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chimiques is recorded at frequency rank #4,471, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃi.mik\. cliniques is at rank #8,080, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kli.nik\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 12551, this pair ranks #404,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chimiques vs cliniques

Shared letters: ceiqsu. Private to "chimiques": hm. Private to "cliniques": ln.

"chimiques" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC  ·  "cliniques" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chimiquescchimiques · chhimiques · chiimques · chimiqeus · chimiqques · chimiquess · chimiquse · chimiuqes
  • cliniquesccliniques · cilniques · cliinques · cliniqeus · cliniqques · cliniquess · cliniquse · cliniuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chimiques" and "cliniques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃi.mik\ versus \kli.nik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chimiques" vs "cliniques" - which ranks higher?
"chimiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,471 in our French list, against #8,080 for "cliniques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chimiques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cliniques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chimiques" and "cliniques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cliniques vs coniques". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #404,766 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list